Library Catalog

On Roman religion : lived religion and the individual in ancient Rome /

Rüpke, Jörg,

On Roman religion : lived religion and the individual in ancient Rome / Jörg Rüpke. - London : Cornell University Press, 2016. - 1 online resource - Townsend lectures/Cornell studies in classical philology . - Cornell studies in classical philology. Townsend lectures. .

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Individual appropriation of religion -- Individual decision and differences of social order in late republican Roman priesthoods -- Appropriating images embodying gods -- Testing the limits of ritual choices -- Reconstructing religious experience -- Dynamics of individual appropriation -- Religious communication -- Instructing literary practice in the Shepherd of Hermas.

Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? Jorg Rupke, one of the world's leading authorities on Roman religion, demonstrates in his new book that it was a lived religion with individual appropriations evident at the heart of such rituals as praying, dedicating, making vows, and reading. On Roman Religion definitively dismantles previous approaches that depicted religious practice as uniform and static. Juxtaposing very different, strategic, and even subversive forms of individuality with traditions, their normative claims, and their institutional protections, Rupke highlights the dynamic character of Rome's religious institutions and traditions. In Rupke's view, lived ancient religion is as much about variations or even outright deviance as it is about attempts and failures to establish or change rules and roles and to communicate them via priesthoods, practices related to images or classified as magic, and literary practices. Rupke analyzes observations of religious experience by contemporary authors including Propertius, Ovid, and the author of the "Shepherd of Hermas." These authors, in very different ways, reflect on individual appropriation of religion among their contemporaries, and they offer these reflections to their readership or audiences. Rupke also concentrates on the ways in which literary texts and inscriptions informed the practice of rituals.


In English.

9781501706264 1501706268

10.7591/9781501706264 doi

22573/ctt1d25zxc JSTOR


Experience (Religion)--History.
Religion--Social aspects--Rome.
Expérience religieuse--Histoire.
Religion--Aspect social--Rome.
RELIGION--Ancient.
Experience (Religion)
Religion
Religion--Social aspects
Religion


Rome--Religion.
Rome--Religion.
Rome (Empire)


Electronic books.
History

BL803 / .R84 2016

292.07